The Fight to Free Jimmy Lai: Sebastien Lai and attorney Jonathan Price

Firing Line with Margaret Hoover

Sebastien Lai, whose father publisher Jimmy Lai is on trial in Hong Kong, and Jonathan Price, a member of Jimmy Lai’s international legal team, talk to Margaret Hoover about their effort to build global support for his release.

Jimmy Lai had been a leading voice in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement before his arrest in 2020 under a controversial national security law. Now 77 and in ailing health, he took the witness stand at his trial this week as he faces a possible sentence of life in prison.

Sebastien explains what led his father to launch Apple Daily, a pro-democracy newspaper that was often critical of Beijing, and why he stayed to fight even when he knew he was risking arrest. Price talks about how the national security law implemented in 2020 changed Hong Kong and how difficult it is to defend someone charged under it.

Sebastien responds to the British government’s advocacy for his father’s release, as well as President-elect Donald Trump’s commitment to help. He also addresses the Vatican’s silence on the case despite his father’s devout Catholicism.

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